Improving Paid Search Performance with Sitelinks

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You spend thousands of dollars on your site every month. You work day and night to market it properly, but there are a few things about paid search that can still be perfected. The money that you are spending on paid search needs to be used “efficiently.” Why?

Paid search often requires the most amount of money, and, therefore, it is in your best interests to make sure you use it efficiently. Paid searches to your site bring in not only a lot of referrals, but also quality traffic and conversions. Site links is one major way in which you can increase referrals to your site.

When a searcher is looking for your brand and you are on top of the search engine rankings, it is mainly because the searcher has you in mind. However, wouldn’t it be great to know exactly “what” the searcher wants from you? What is their “intent?”

This is exactly where Google Sitelinks can help. Sitelinks allows people to get a sneak peek of your website by displaying additional links to your site on your search engine results. Google Sitelinks is available both for SEO and PPC campaigns, but the choices are more numerous when you opt for PPC Sitelinks.

Sitelinks – For Searchers and Companies

Site links are good not only for searchers, but also for the companies. They are valuable for searchers because they can exercise more choice, and the relevance of the ad is increased because searchers get more options for navigation in the ad itself.

With increased relevance for searchers, site links becomes important for companies as well. Google anticipates an increase of about 30% in Click Through Rates (CTR) if you choose to show site links in AdWords’ ads. Having more entries on the top also implies less competition for the searchers to notice; now this is an added perk!

Site links can also help improve the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) by improving targeting.

Targeting Intent

You can target searcher intent better by providing them with a host of different options instead of a “one-click” option to your homepage. Options that center on the different cycles of consumer behavior, such as “Buy,” “Learn,” and “Browse,” can be incorporated separately, thus helping them put in targeted feedback.

For instance, consider the link below:

While the pale pink ad at the top shows how paid site links are shown, the one following it is the SEO site link. In both cases, you can see a number of options like “Mobiles,” “Books,” “Electronics,” and “‘Home Appliances” that are available for an online store, Flipkart. This gives searchers a larger space to scroll through, plus your competitors are pushed down.

Occupying the first half of the first page on Google surely has its own advantages. First, the targeted user has more options and gateways, and he can jump to a relevant section of the site directly from the search result page. This reduces latency and wins the trust of the searcher right on the spot, without you having to drive him to a landing page and convince him that this is the product he wants.

The second advantage is the usage of signal keywords that directly associate with your business and the needs of the customer. For example, if someone is looking for “cheap digital cameras,” and he finds a site link titled “Cheap digital cameras” directly in the AdWords’ ad, he is more likely to click through. On the other hand, if you don’t show site links and instead choose to show an obvious ad to each and every visitor, there is a high chance that he won’t click due to the non-availability of “signal keywords.”

Also, by having these options, searchers can directly choose which page of the site they want to visit, instead of maneuvering through all the pages in a cumbersome manner. Therefore, by targeting their “intent,” you also specify their choices, which leads to an efficient use of your campaign money and resources.

Driving KPI

If you want particular coverage and attention for specific actions and key events, then PPC Sitelinks can be used. The Key Performance Indicators of your organization can be linked to “Search” directly. Needless to say, that is great for business, and it is a proven method to drive maximum conversions in the bigger picture.

In fact, you can even drive traffic to some special promotion of the company. For instance, you can drive searchers to a signup page for a live webinar or a special discount page for an eBook purchase. You can place these options according to your convenience and swap them out as and when needed.

For instance, consider the link below:

This ad not only allows you to “buy books,” but it also allows you to get “book reviews” and a list of the “Top 40 Ebooks.” By doing this, you increase the value of your site as more and more potential customers are interested in your free services. When combined with the main goods and services, this can actually be a strong motivator for your searchers that encourages them to participate in your promotional offer, thereby earning you goodwill and brand recognition.

If you haven’t been taking advantage of Google Sitelinks yet, it’s time to improve your paid search campaign performance. You can create and activate your site links and gain valuable information here.

PPC Sitelinks can change the way people perceive your business, so get right down to it. Make efficient use of your Adwords’ money, create more effective campaigns, know exactly WHAT your customers want, and increase your revenue. It is just a matter of time until your experiments bear fruit, and your business reaps the profit.

Sujan Patel has over 12 years of digital marketing experience and has helped hundreds of clients increase web traffic, boost user acquisition, and grow their businesses. He’s currently the VP of Marketing at When I Work, the top rated employee scheduling software. In addition to his role at When I Work Sujan co-founded ContentMarketer.io and wrote the book on Growth Hacking titled 100 Days of Growth.

6 thoughts on “Improving Paid Search Performance with Sitelinks”

Don’t get me wrong – sitelinks are great, but the majority of people do not actually click on the sitelinks themselves (from what I’ve seen at any rate).As an example, looking at one ad group that has been running a year in an account (with a very good average position, 17,000 clicks on the headline, and 480 clicks on a sitelink.I’m not saying the sitelinks are perfect in this campaign, and it can’t be improved on but it’s a real world figure…

Love site links with PPC ads, but I have also seen great results with the local extension. Of course, this depends on advertising a very locally relevant business. For instance, I have a client that owns a cleaning company; her average position is only about 5 or 6, but I have still been able to generate results due to being the only ad with that local extension in the SERPs.